Set in the gold-fields of post union South Africa the story charts the trials and tribulations of an immigrant family in search of a better life. Greed and deception become the twin drivers of the head of the family when he becomes embroiled in a scheme to take money from unwitting American investors. Solomon lives a different kind of life with his own family, dispossessed of his land and forced to work in the mines alongside thousands of other native labourers. However, he has a special talent and from the sidelines bears witnesses to the injustice of South Africa's political system, the 1922 revolt of the white miners and the beginnings of apartheid.